"In the first quarter of this year, the volume of Lithuania's insurance market was record large, exceeding by 2% the largest amount of premiums written in the first quarter of 2008 that could not be reached for five years. The record large insurance market volume was driven by growth in both branches – life assurance and non-life insurance," comments Mindaugas Salcius, Deputy Director of the Prudential Supervision Department of the Supervision Service at the Bank of Lithuania.
In the first quarter of 2014 the life assurance market grew by 14.6% (to LTL 152.3 million or EUR 44.1 million), the non-life insurance market – by 8.5% (to LTL 334.6 million or EUR 96.9 million). The growth in life assurance market volumes is also suggested by the developments in the life assurance contracts in force: as of 31 March 2014, 409 thousand of life assurance contracts were in force, a year-on-year increase of 4.8%.
In the first quarter of 2014, the amount of premiums written in the largest branch of insurance within the non-life insurance class – MTPL insurance – continued to increase significantly (up to LTL 112.1 million or EUR 32.4 million), a year-on-year increase of 13%. This is the highest volume of this insurance class in the history of non-life insurance market.
The increase in the number of cars in Lithuania entails the increase in the demand for Casco insurance. 57 million units of insurance contracts were concluded in the first quarter of 2014, a year-on-year increase of 9.8%. However, the amount of premiums written boosted by a mere 1.6% during the same period – to LTL 73.1 million (EUR 21.1 million). Due to high competition in the non-life insurance market, a decline in the average Casco premium has been observed.
Property insurance volume lags marginally behind Casco insurance volume: in the first quarter of 2014, LTL 70.6 million (EUR 20.4 million) of asset insurance premiums were written, an increase of 10% year on year.
In the first quarter of 2014, insurers paid LTL 267.8 million (EUR 77.5 million) of claims, a year-on-year decrease of 15.2%.
Insurance undertakings registered in Lithuania continue to exhibit impressive operating performance. Ten insurance undertakings recorded LTL 37.1 million (EUR 10.7 million) of unaudited profits at the end of the first quarter (LTL 27.3 million or EUR 7.9 million in the first quarter of 2013). As in 2013, the profits for the first quarter of this year were mainly driven by the insurance activity performance, which was well above the figure for the own funds investment performance.
